Tuesday, Aug 7, 2012    Text size: 

INCHEON, South Korea — South Korean police shut down what it’s calling the nation’s largest online porn ring.

According to the Korean Herald, a university professor and 12 accomplices ran the “Webhard” porn file sharing service that netted the operators $177,210.

Nearly 10,000 members were as part of an exclusive club that allowed them to download a gigabyte file of adult material for about $1 from the local operation that included video and other porn.

The crackdown reportedly comes as a result of a number of “brutal sexual offenses against women and children.”

Incheon Metropolitan Police said three of the alleged operators were booked on charges of recruiting people to upload porn.

Another 12, including the university professor, were also booked for allegedly posting nearly 160,000 porn items for sale on the website.

None of the accused were held in detention.

The providers who uploaded the porn content allegedly were paid in cash ranging anywhere from $26 to $9000, along with free coupons from the website operators.